Ethan Wolin, Contributing Photographer

Alex Guzhnay ’24, who as the Ward 1 alder bridged Yale’s student body and New Haven’s legislative body, has returned to City Hall to be the mayor’s liaison to the Board of Alders.

Guzhnay began the job in Mayor Justin Elicker’s administration on Tuesday, having graduated from Yale College in May. In the evening after his first day at work, Guzhnay attended the full board meeting, sitting in the public section rather than at a desk with his nameplate.

“Is that Alex Guzhnay there?” Ward 27 Alder Richard Furlow, the majority leader, remarked when he noticed his 22-year-old former colleague during the public session preceding the meeting. “Remember where you started, brother.”

Guzhnay, the son of Ecuadorian immigrants, grew up in New Haven and was elected to the Board of Alders during his sophomore year at Yale. He served one term as the Ward 1 alder, from January 2022 to December 2023. The district, now represented by Kiana Flores ’25, includes eight Yale residential colleges and Old Campus.

He told the News he expects the new position to include both administrative coordinating between the city’s legislative and executive branches, but also work on local policy initiatives. He will help organize appointees to New Haven’s boards and commissions as well. Guzhnay applied to the role only about a month ago, he said, after continuing in his campus job with Yale Conferences & Events through the summer. He is succeeding Barbara Montalvo.

Returning to the Aldermanic Chambers Tuesday evening in his new role, Guzhnay caught up with alders alongside whom he sat just over eight months ago. He bantered with several of them about his new responsibilities — not to the 4,500 constituents in his neighborhood, but to Elicker’s vision for leading the city.

“Majority Leader Furlow was like, ‘Playing for the other team now,’” Guzhnay said. “I was like, ‘No, it’s the same team, just from a different angle.’”

The board — whose members are all Democrats, most of them affiliated or allied with Yale’s influential UNITE HERE unions — votes unanimously for most city policy proposals. Alders, serving part-time generally on top of full-time jobs, can shape legislation in committee meetings.

Guzhnay, who chaired the board’s Health and Human Services Committee, said he will focus on “hearing from the board and using that to maybe provide some feedback directly to the mayor” and “giving him a temperature check on how the board is.”

The alders must approve the mayor’s annual budget and often make adjustments before doing so. In May, they rejected some new government positions that Elicker had proposed. Alders have also diverged from Elicker on residency requirements for certain city officials. But on most matters, the alders and the mayor come to agreement.

“I’ve been very glad to be in a moment where we have a lot of collaboration between my team and the board, and have a common vision for the city,” Elicker said. “Alex Guzhnay’s role is to engage with the alders, share what their concerns are with our team so we can address them, and also to articulate why we think what is in front of the alders is so important.”

Elicker added that Guzhnay will benefit on the job from the relationships he developed over two years of aldermanic work.

Board President Tyisha Walker-Myers, who represents Ward 23, told the News that Guzhnay was a hard-working, inquisitive colleague and a fast-learning committee chair, a rare post for a first-term alder.

“He knows the process, and so having a person that used to be on the board, he would be able to say to the administration, ‘We need to give them more time on that, because they have to go through this process,’” Walker-Myers said.

Guzhnay majored in political science and wrote his thesis about political participation by Latino Americans.